A Communication Plan for the 2012 Ball State University Dance Marathon
An Honors Thesis (HONRS 499)
by
Kate Burnett
Thesis Advisor
Becky McDonald
Ball State University
Muncie, Indiana
May 2012
Expected Date of Graduation
May 2012
,r
>
Abstract
Public relations plays a vital role in the promotion of any event or organization. As the
Director of Public Relations for the 2012 Dance Marathon, it was my job to promote the
organization, its mission , and all of the special events leading up to the marathon on
February 18, 2012. The communication strategy for the year was to make the Ball State
community aware of the dance marathon and the special events held prior to it.
Awareness was created through the selection of target audiences and by creating
messages tailored to those audiences. I communicated to the target publics by using
social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as through other means of promotion .
I created the communication strategy and all of the material for this public relations
campaign. The result was the most successful marathon to date raising $87,628.04 and
having more than 700 dancers at the event.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr. Becky McDonald for advising me through this project. Her help
and guidance during my four-year college career enabled me to create this plan , which
resulted in a successful marathon.
I would also like to thank all of the 2012 Dance Marathon executive board members for
their constant support and friendship. Without their encouragement, this project and the
marathon itself would not have been possible.
3
A Communication Plan for the
2012 Ball State University Dance Marathon
By: Kate Burnett
Public relations is a multifaceted field. Professionals deal with everything from media
relations to intemal communications to social media. As the director of public relations for
the 2012 Ball State University Dance Marathon, my job was to create a successful
communication plan and actively engage the Ball State University community in a campuswide philanthropic event.
I built my project around the use of social media and its influence on the actions of
college-aged individuals. My objective, as the director of public relations, was to create
social media outlets and other promotional materials to get the attention of Ball State
students and to get them to register as participants for the marathon.
My project reinforces all of the major concepts I have learned within my major
during my four years at Ball State. I put into practice the theories of strategic
communication and design, my knowledge of social media outlets, and the theories
behind executing a successful public relations campaign. This project pushed me beyond
what I have learned in the classroom and forced me to make practical application of those
skills. I had to apply everything I learned through my classes to successfully complete this
project.
Background
To begin the strategic communication process for the 2012 marathon, it was
important to examine the history of both the event and the organization . Ball State
University Dance Marathon (BSUDM) is one of more than 150 colleges and high schools
4
nationwide raising money for the Children's Miracle Network (CrvlN) Hospital in their local
community. The CMN hospital closest to Ball State is Riley Hospital for Children, located in
Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Ball State marathon originally started as a philanthropic event hosted by Phi l\.I1u
Fraternity and Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity and was held for five consecutive years. In
2007, BSUDM had their first campus-wide marathon as an official student organization
and celebrated its fifth year in 2012.
Ball State University Dance Marathon is run entirely by students who devote their
time to ensure the success of the organization. The executive board members and their
respective committee members, made up of Ball State students, work year round to
fundraise, hold events for Riley families, and plan for the marathon. Their work culminates
in a 12-hour standing marathon every February and all of the money raised is donated to
Riley Hospital for Children.
Before beginning my communication plan for the 2012 marathon, I also chose to
look at the work done by the previous director of public relations for BSUDM. My
predecessor's work was mainly centered on word of mouth and the use of flyers to create
awareness for the marathon. My predecessor also visited various student organizations on
campus in an effort to reach out to the Ball State community. A Twitter handle was
created for BSUDM, but it was not utilized, nor was there a Facebook page in existence.
The 2011 marathon used a Facebook group to try and generate social media awareness
of the event.
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Target Audience
Every communication campaign is focused on reaching out to specific target
audiences. The messages are then strategically tailored for their audiences in whatever
communication style is necessary to meet the audience's needs.
The target audience for this communication plan is the student population of Ball
State University, the Ball State and Muncie communities, and the Riley families that our
executive board interacts with on a regular basis.
The students at Ball State compose the members of the BSUDM executive board,
committee members, and the potential dance marathon participants. They are an
important target audience because they have been the main source of fund raising for our
previous marathons and because the BSUDM exec wants them to take an active part in
the event. Students are also the target audience because they are the main group that
Dance Marathon hopes to impact through awareness of the work that is done at Riley
Hospital for Children.
The Ball State and Muncie communities are important target audiences because
Dance Marathon wants to expand the awareness of the event beyond the student
population. Generating awareness in the Ball State and Muncie communities is important
because the 2012 executive board hopes to create relationships with potential corporate
and private donors.
Finally, it is important for our Riley families to feel connected with the work Dance
Marathon does throughout the year. A lot of the families that work with BSUDM utilize
social media and like to feel involved with the events that are taking place on campus. The
6
families are essential to our campaign goal of awareness because they share their Riley
stories with the students at Ball State and throughout the state of Indiana.
Key Messages and Goals
The key messages that were used throughout the campaign focused on awareness
of the 2012 Dance Marathon and the mission behind the event. The mission of Ball State
University Dance Marathon is to create awareness and raise money for Riley kids and their
families. The main communication strategy of this plan is to help make the Ball State
community aware of Dance Marathon and the special events held prior to it by sending out
targeted messages that help the audience connect to the cause on a more personal level.
The messages are also designed to be fun and energetic to better relate to the college
audience and to serve as representation of the spirit of dance marathon.
Members of Dance Marathon constantly represent the work of Riley Hospital for
Children, so it was important to keep in mind the cause berlind the organization. Riley
strives to provide top-tier medical care for its patients from routine to complex procedures .
Dance Marathon also promoted the use of Riley stories to engage the target publics and
the reinforce the Riley slogan, "Hope Happens Here."
Goals and Objectives
The 2012 executive board held our first retreat in April 20111 to establish our goals
for the marathon overall. Our original goals were to have a total of 600 dancers at the
event and to raise $60 ,000.
The main goal of my communication plan was to create awareness of dance
marathon and the special events held prior to the marathon . I wanted to increase the
7
target public's acceptance of the marathon and BSUDM as an organization. Another goal
for my role was to help create a relationship between Dance Marathon and the Ball State
student population. I set out to accomplish this goal by creating a social media presence
for BSUDM and by working to create relationships with local media outlets. I also wanted
to utilize guerrilla marketing tactics to promote the marathon and events associated with
Dance Marathon as an organization.
Social Media
To help meet the goals of my communication strategy, I decided to create social
media outlets for Dance Marathon. The two social media outlets I used to connect with the
target publics were Facebook and Twitter. I chose to use social media as my main form of
communication because my main target audience was the Ball State student population.
Most college students at least one form of social media, so I thought this would be the
best way to communicate with a large number of students. I also thought that social media
would be a good communication outlet because of its ability to be used in an interactive
format.
8
Facebook
The Facebook page I created for Dance Marathon is called, "Ball State University
Dance Marathon." The page was created in Apnl 2011. I created all of the content in the
"About" section of the page to accurately describe Dance Marathon as an organization.
The "About" section also lists contact information and the official Dance Marathon website.
Ball State University Dance Marathon
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Ball Slate University I. one of ISO colleges and high school. around the
country to host a dance milrathon for a Children's Miracle Network
hospllill . Our milrilthon originilily staned iIS a philanthropic ~nt hosted
by Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity and Phi Mu Fraternity, and _nt on for
nine consecutive years.
In 2008, IIiIII State Dance Marathon became a campus-wide student
organization, and hilS .In ...s.. Mo ..
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This upcoming year's Dance Marathon wlll be held on February 18,
2012.
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SaIl Slate Unlverslly Dance Mvathon 2011 rAised
Company OVerview
Children's Mlraclt Nttwork Dance Manthon program began in 1995
when Indiana Unlversily rAised more !han 560,000 Uter their third event
for the Ryan White Infectious Disease fund. The !tadltlon of dance
mvathons beQan as a conteS! In which the last couple standing was
declared the winner. The concepc bellan to change In 1973 whtn Penn
Slate's Interfruernlly Council beQan a dance marathon as a fundrAiser.
In 1995, the first year of the program, four universiUts ralstd U42,OOO
for kids treated at Children'S Miracle Ne!WOri< hospiuls. from chis point
on, !he Children's Miracle Network Dance Mvathon program has grown
cremendously.
539,220.00 FTKIII
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Contact Info
Website
http://www.bsudancemifithon .Ot.lI/
Dance Marathon is a nationwide movement, involving college and high
school srudenlS at over 150 schools across the country who raise monty
for the Children's Miracle Network hospital in !heir communlly. These
students spend a year learning Invaluable leadership and SOCial skills
while raising funds In a ~Iely of ways and Interacting with children's
hospital palltnlS and families . The yev culminates with a 12-36 hour
long evenl where Ihe S!udenlS slay on their ftetlhrough dancing,
games, and enlertalnmenlln order 10 celebrate the lotal amounl raised
that year. Why Slay on your feel for !hallong7 To quote the first
Children' s Miracle Network Dance Mvathon's mission statement: "We
dance for those who can'!. - It Is this solidvlly to and connection with
the cause that makes Dance Marathon an event unlike any other.
10
I also added the ability to link the Twitter feed from the @BSUDM account to the
Facebook page. This allows continuity between the Facebook and Twitter accounts and
allows fans of the Facebook page to easily monitor both sites.
facebook
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11
The "Photos" section contains pictures from the 2012 Dance Marathon and the
profile pictures for the Facebook page. The photo album from the marathon is a
compilation of photograplls from different photographers that took pictures at the
marathon. The album provides a pretty complete documentation from the event.
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19
After creating all of the different parts of the Facebook page , the next step was
continuing to generate content that would maintain the interest of the followers and to
increase the number of "Likes" on the page. Throughout the course of my year as the
director of public relations , the number of "Likes" on the page went from zero to 370.
For the content of the page, I focused on keeping the followers engaged with the
information I was posting . The most common things that I posted to the page were links to
YouTube videos with stories about Riley kids and links to our FirstGiving dancer
registration page . I normally posted from the BSUDM account at least once every other
day to keep the audience engaged, but not overwhelm them with information.
To determine what content I posted on the Facebook page, I thought about the key
messages I needed to convey to the Ball State community. I believe that more students
are willing to watch videos about Riley kids than they would be to read an article. I kept
these thoughts in mind throughout the year as I created content for the page. I tried to
keep the content as interactive as possible, posting multi-media stories and other
engaging material.
20
My other main use for Facebook was the creation of "Events" for the various special
events and dancer call outs that were held throughout the year. Once an event was
created, I asked all of the executive board and committee members to invite all of their
friends to the events to ensure that the Ball State community was aware of what was
going on. I created all of the content for each event as well as using InOesign software to
create a graphic as the display picture.
21
facebook
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Past Events
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BSUDM 2012 - 2013 Exec Utli Out
March IS. 2012 al 9:30pm
Meg~n Cross and 72 other guests
I\J 175
BSUDM 3 VS. 3 BasketbAll Tournament
Saturday. Febru.ory 4.2012 al 1:00pm
Kristin Cochr~ and 946 oth.,r gutsls
Sail Gym
Dancer Call Oull
Tu.,sday. January 31. 2012 al 9:30pm
Krluln Cochr~ and 941 Ot"", guests
AJ 175
BSUDM D.lle Auct ion
Thursday. NovembO!r 17. 2011 al 7:00pm
KrIstin Cochr;m and 1. 290 other guests
AR (Art Musuem) 217
Dancer Call Out Meeting
Tuesday, NovembO!r 15, 2011 3 t 9: lOpm
Kristln CochrIn and 2. 128 other guests
Sdrw,rtz Med" Room (firsl noor of Sracken)
BSUDM Col' OutJng
Sunday. October g, 2011 al12 :l0pm
Megan Cross a nd 624 other gUelts
Mu n cie Elks Club
2012 BSUDM Dancer CallOut
Wednesday. SepeembO!r 28, 2011 al 7:00pm
Kristin Cochnrn and 820 other guests
Plne,h. lf Room
BSUDM Committee OllO\lt
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 ot 8:00pm
Amber Ooyf., and 721 other guests
TC 101
Thursd~y.
In
the Student Center
22
As an administer of the page, I had access to "Insights," provided by Facebook,
that kept track of the number of new "Likes" per week as well as the number of people
mentioning the Bali State University Dance Marathon on their personal page and the total
reach of such comments. This information was extremely helpful when I was trying to
analyze the use of the Facebook page. The information that I chose to focus on below is
from the February 15 to 21, which represents the time just before and just after the
marathon. I chose to analyze this time period specifically because I believed it would the
time at which the Facebook page would receive the most traffic.
The total reach of the page increased throughout the year, as it got closer to the
week of the marathon. The height of the BSUDM page's reach was the February 15 to 21.
That week, the page reached a total of 10,032 people. Females represented 62 percent of
the reach while males represented 37 percent. The age demographic with the highest
reach was the 18 to 24 age group with 77 percent of the total reach.
23
Vl5IIs 10 Your hge
PageVl_s
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200
100
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171 Wall
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1 Events
1 Friend Activity
I02/01/2012 - 02/29/2012 • I
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2,315 United 51ales of America
!M8 Muncie, IN
2,332 English
5 Un ired Kingdom
276 IndlMlapolis, IN
2 Soulh Korea
116 Bloomington, IN
2 Auslralla
(US)
63 English (UK)
" English (Pirale)
62 Wesl Ufayene, IN
3 Spanish
2 Germany
54 FOtt Wayne. IN
2 Spanish (Spain)
2 Ireland
53 Valparaiso, IN
2 French (France)
2 Poland
40 OIicago, It
2 German
More w
More w
2.1",
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w
24
All of the activity generated on the Facebook page was viral and none of it was paid
for through advertisement.
Visits. Your P-ee
PagellWws
I!fPagt Voews 1 I!f unlque \I,s, ror! 1
200
100
871 __
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bsud~cemarathon .org
1 5utlc.wix.com
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1 Friend Activity
25
In the month of February 80 percent of the people who "Liked" the page were
female and 20 percent were male. Eighty-eight percent of the people who "Liked" the
page were between the ages of 18 to 24.
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State University Dane...
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There were more than 180 visitors to the Facebook page on February 19, the day
after the marathon . Of those 180 visitors, there were 93 unique, or new, visitors
throughout the day.
Although the information above represents a specific week of site analysis for the
Facebook page, I believe it is an important week to highlight. The Facebook page was
created at the beginning of my term as director of public relations and saw immense grow
throughout my year in the role. I chose to highlight the week of the marathon specifically
26
because I believed it would be the time when there was the most traffic for the site.
Through my analysis of the insight information, I found my assumption to be true.
I think one of the best outcomes of the marathon was the increased activity on the
Facebook page. A lot of the people who "Liked" the page when it was originally created
were executive board members (both past and present) as well as committee members.
With increased awareness of Dance Marathon through the event, the Facebook page was
able to attract more of the Ball State student population. This increase will also be
beneficial to my successor because it gives them a larger starting fan base than I began
with when I created the page.
27
Twitter
BSU Dance Marathon
,BSUDM
Munc:ie,lndllr'\a
hltp:llWww.bsudII~on.OIgI
440 FOLLOWlNO
854 FOU.O'M:RS
>
lWeets
Following
BSU Dance M8I'IIthon BSUDM
1 Apr
Proud of our own team for being @DeltaZeta_BSU's lfTur1IeTug coed champs! llsupport
FoIlowenI
favorites
BSU Dance M..thon BS UDM
12 Apr
Uke our Facebook pageillBSUDM13 IIFTK tlnyurl.comlcnwuus
lists
McKInley W. .k McKlnl8'fWeek
1 1 Apr
Dance Marathon (OBSUDM) again with a 1st place win! Can they be
stopped or will they sweep the week? IIMcKlnieyWeek2012
pIc.twltter.comIZru9b3ch
t:1 ~eo by BSU Dance "".armh on
>
Similar to you
ISU oar- M8mhon
Following
D8nce M8r8ttIon
FollowmQ
ISUOM
PUOM
.Vlawphoto
BSU Dance M.~n BSUDM
I Apr
Ifs IIDMWednesday! If you don't know what IIDanceMarathon Is all
about, check it out
....childrensmlraclenetworkhosp/tals.orgiAboutUs IIFTKI
Ball State University Dance Marathon's Twitter handle is @BSUDM . The Twitter
account was created before I began working as the director of public relations , but was
not really utilized as a communication outlet by my predecessor. The Twitter account had
a solid base of followers, but my goal was to increase the usage of the account and to
increase the total number of followers.
My strategy with the Twitter account was to create interactive content that followers
would find relevant and to keep followers informed about everything happening through
Dance Marathon.
28
With the Twitter account, I thought it was important to generate content more
frequently than with the Facebook account. I believe this because Twitter is a faster,
shorter means of communicating with an audience. Twitter updates are limited to 140
characters, so it is important to be very concise with content. Because I wanted to create
content on a more consistent and constant basis, I used HootSuite as a management tool
for the Twitter account.
I chose to use HootSuite because it is a service that allows you to manage multiple
accounts at a time and users also have the ability to create content and schedule it to be
sent in the future. I found the scheduling tool to be extremely helpful when planning
content for @BSUDM. I was able to sit down at the beginning of each week and schedule
all of the tweets for the entire week based on my schedule of events. This was helpful
because it ensured that tweets were being sent out throughout the day, but it did not
require me to have access to the Internet or a smart phone.
Throughout my year as the director of public relations , I tried to schedule at least
one tweet per day to keep the followers of the account engaged . When there were events,
I would try to tweet more often to get the attention of our followers. As the marathon
approached, I launched the use of our Twitter account into overdrive. For the two weeks
prior to the marathon, I tweeted an average of six times per day. The content of those
tweets mainly focused on encouraging dancers to continue their fundraising efforts for the
marathon. Similar to the Facebook page, I tried to create content that was as interactive as
possible, tweeting links to YouTube videos and other multimedia sources.
29
The 2012 executive board held our meetings every Wednesday, so we decided that
we would wear BSUDM clothing items to increase awareness on campus. To encourage
interaction with the followers of the account, I created the hashtag #DMWednesday. I
asked my fellow executive board members to use this hashtag to help generate
awareness about Dance Marathon. In addition to using the hashtag on Wednesdays, I also
asked followers of the @BSUDM account to answer questions. These questions were
designed to create another level of interactivity with followers. One example of a question
is, "What is your favorite thing about #BSUDM?" #DMWednesday was created to increase
social media interaction between the followers and the @BSUDM account.
The @BSUDM account was also used to create interaction between the Ball State
Dance Marathon and marathons on a national level. I kept track of the dates of other
marathons taking place around the country and I would tweet at them to wish them luck at
their marathons and to congratulate them for their totals. I worked especially hard to
create relationships between BSUDM and other marathons in Indiana working to raise
money for Riley . I kept followers updated when our executive board visited other Indiana
marathons at places like Indiana University, Purdue, and Butler, as well as the results of
our mini-marathons . I did this to try and create a sense of community among all of the
Indiana schools working to raise money for the same hospital.
At the end of my term , the @BSUDM Twitter account had more than 650 followers
and more than 830 tweets . Both the number of followers and tweets increased greatly
throughout my term as director of public relations. I believe that the interactive content I
generated played a major part in increasing the number of followers for the account. This
30
increase will also be beneficial for my successor because they will have a solid foundation
to build off of during the coming year.
31
Events
Along with the promotion of the marathon itself, it was also my job to promote all of
the special events put on by Dance Marathon prior to the actual event. For Ball State's
homecoming, I generated social media about our executive board member who
represented BSUDM on the homecoming royalty court and I coordinated promotional
material to be passed out during the parade. During the parade, I created a flyer with
information on how to register as a dancer for the marathon with a quick response (OR)
code. I also made posters for other executive board members to carry while they walked in
the parade.
The other major events held throughout the year were a golf outing, a date auction,
and a three-on-three basketball tournament. For each of these events, I created social
media messages to make the followers of the Facebook and Twitter pages aware of what
was happening. I created a Facebook "Event" for each event with a description of what
was going on, where it was taking place, and who the money was benefitting. I created a
unique graphic for each special event that served as the display picture. Along with
Facebook coverage, I also tweeted about the events taking place and linked the URL of
the Facebook event. This allowed followers of the Twitter account to view the Facebook
page and get more detailed information about the event taking place. Executive board and
committee members were all asked to invite all of their Ball State friends to the events in
an attempt to create awareness.
32
Guerilla Marketing
In conjunction with the traditional promotional methods, I also undertook a few
guerilla marketing projects during the year. The first guerilla marketing technique that I
used involved the OR codes for Dance Marathon. With the Ilelp of my public relations
committee members, I created small squares with the OR codes that we passed out all
over campus. Our hope was that through this effort, we could get students to use the OR
and be led to the Dance lV1arathon website where they would register for the marathon.
The second guerilla marketing tactic I used was the hanging up of flyers allover
campus. I created a flyer in InDesign promoting Dance Marathon and printed out more
than 200 copies to hang up allover campus. I took some of the flyers to the Housing and
Residence office so they could be put up in the dorms. The remaining flyers were hung up
in building all around campus and were put up on the kiosk located outside of Noyer.
The final and most in-depth guerilla marketing event took place at the end of
January as a final push to get dancers registered for the marathon. With the help of the
Riley Relations committee, I created yard signs that were put up on McKinley for a day.
The signs were double-sided and were put up on both sides of the street. Each set of
signs gave facts about two particular Riley kids and told their stories. I chose to use signs
with facts on them to help make the kids' stories more relatable and inspiring to Ball State
students. These signs were put up the day of our last dancer callout meeting. I received
positive feedback on Twitter, where followers tweeted at our account about the signs they
saw on campus.
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I think that the guerrilla marketing techniques I used on campus this year created a
solid foundation for similar activities in the future. I definitely think there is potential for more
guerilla marketing in the future, especially building off of the statistical sign idea. I think the
signs were a good way to raise awareness for Dance Marathon and could be carried out
on a larger scale next year with the proper planning.
Media Relations
Another important role for any public relations position is media relations.
Throughout the year, I worked with the Daily News to generate news coverage for Dance
Marathon and all of the special events we held. The Daily News covered our date auction
as a feature story and they wrote both pre and post Dance Marathon stories, which each
made the front page of the news. The post-marathon story was the headlining story the
Monday after the event and was covered above the fold and continued on the back page.
Overall, I was pleased with the quality of the coverage Dance Marathon received
throughout the year . The coverage was fairly frequent and the stories were portrayed in a
positive light.
Along with working with the Daily News writers , I also worked with an account
executive in the Daily News Ads office. At the beginning of my term as the director of
public relations, I met with one of the directors of ON Ads and I was able to work out a
contract with them. I secured free advertisement space that I was able to use throughout
the year to promote our special events and the marathon itself.
In addition to my work with the Daily News, I also tried to expand our media
coverage beyond the Ball State community. I contacted a director at WLBC radio station,
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which reaches audiences from Indianapolis to Muncie. The Tuesday before the marathon, I
called into their morning show and I was given a five minute on-air interview.
I had hoped to expand the coverage of the marathon beyond the Muncie area, but
media relations is the one area that I feel like I really neglected. It was an area that I
considered to be more "optional" if there were more pressing matters at hand. In a last
minute effort to secure more press coverage, I attempted to contact television stations in
the Indianapolis area, but I did not get any response. If I could go back in, I would have
tried to devote more of my time to media coverage for the marathon.
Marathon
Most of my work as the director of public relations took place before the marathon
since it was my job to create awareness of the event. During the actual marathon, I had a
few jobs. I was in charge of live tweeting the event, coordinating videographers and
photographers, and creating signage for the event location.
The purpose of creating signage for the venue was to help inform the dancers of
where things were in the building. I created signs for things like the dancer room, the family
room, the committee room, and for dancer registration. These signs were useful to
dancers throughout the night and provided them with direction.
My most difficult job for the night was coordinating the videographers and
photographers for the event. This was a challenge because I originally had a videographer
set to film the event, but he decided to back out of the project on the Monday before the
marathon. I scrambled to get other videographers and luckily, I was able to find two
replacements before the marathon. It was also a challenge to coordinate photographers
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for the event. I think if I had to repeat the process again, I would make sure that I had at
least two people to cover the event. I would do this to ensure that even if one person
backed out last minute, I would have a replacement readily available.
My final job during the marathon was live tweeting the event. In preparation for the
marathon, I created the hashtag #BSUDM12 and created a sign for the hashtag that was
hung up in the gym. Trlroughout the marathon, I tweeted about the events that were
taking place, the families that told their stories, and updates about the amount of time
remaining. I think the live tweeting was a success, especially with the use of the hashtag .
Dancers also used the hashtag throughout the night, which helped me to document their
reactions to different parts of the marathon. It was also fun to read the dancers' tweets the
next day to see how they had been affected by the marathon and the Riley kids' stories.
Results and Evaluation Methods
The 2012 marathon had the best results to date. More than 750 dancers registered
for the event and more than 700 dancers attended the marathon . The 2011 Dance
Marathon only had a total of 398 dancers. The total amount of money raised for Riley
Hospital for Children was $87,628.04, a 123.4 percent increase from the 2011 total of
$39,220. The total amount of money raised for the marathon was through dancer
fundraising, corporate sponsorships, and through special events held throughout the year.
As the director of public relations, it was my job to generate publicity for the marathon.
Because of the totals we saw for both the number of dancers and the total amount of
money raised, I believe that my communication plan was a success.
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Recommendations
Although I believe that this year's communication plan was a success, I have a few
future recommendations that I believe will help the marathon grow further. I do not think I
really had enough time to concentrate on media relations throughout my term. Originally,
the role as the director of public relations was supposed to be a two-person job, but my
co-director decided to graduate in December and was asked to step down from her
position. I think I was able to undertake the duties my job required, but if there had been
another person to help with my position, I would have been able to focus less on the dayto-day activities and more on expanding the role of public relations for Dance Marathon.
One of the things I would have like to have done would have been to create
stronger ties with media organizations around the state of Indiana. I would have liked to
have more coverage from the Star Press in Muncie, as well as television coverage by
Indianapolis outlets. I think this could have been possible if I had had more time to work on
media relations, but I was focused on issues closer at hand.
Another thing I would have liked to look into was the idea of live streaming the
marathon on the Internet. Most of the other big schools have live streaming, so I think
looking in to doing so would be beneficial for the growth of Ball State's Dance Marathon. I
think this would also help to keep alumni engaged as the alumni base continues to grow.
I mentioned all of these ideas to my successors in hopes they will choose to work
on these projects during their terms. Before their transition I also spent time researching
the roles of public relations directors at other universities' dance marathons to try and give
them some ideas about what their roles could look like in the future. I think it is important
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to look at other organizations and their successes so Ball State Dance Marathon is able to
build on their own success. I believe that the marathon will continue to grow this coming
year and I hope my successors learn from both my successes and my failures.
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